sorafenib tosylate in treating patients with recurrent aggressive non-hodgkin's lymphoma

Conditions: Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma; Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma; Hepatosplenic T-cell Lymphoma; Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma; Recurrent Adult Diffuse Large Cell Lymphoma; Recurrent Adult Immunoblastic Large Cell Lymphoma; Recurrent Adult T-cell Leukemia/Lymphoma; Recurrent Cutaneous T-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Summary: this phase ii trial is studying how well sorafenib works in treating patients with recurrent diffuse large b-cell non-hodgkin's lymphoma. sorafenib may stop the growth of cancer cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth and by blocking blood flow to the tumor.

primary objectives: i. to evaluate the response rate of treatment with sorafenib (bay43-9006) in patients with recurrent aggressive non-hodgkin's lymphomas. secondary objectives: i. to evaluate the duration of response and progression free survival of treatment with bay43-9006 in patients with recurrent aggressive non-hodgkin's lymphomas. ii. to characterize the toxicity of treatment with bay43-9006 in patients with recurrent aggressive non-hodgkin's lymphomas. iii. to further characterize the pharmacokinetics properties of bay43-9006 and assess influence of monooxygenases polymorphisms and multi-drug resistance transporter (mdr) on pharmacokinetics. outline: this is a multicenter study. patients receive oral sorafenib twice daily on days 1-28. courses repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. after completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for 1 year. planned accrual: 41 actual accrual: 14

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * patients must have histologically confirmed recurrent de novo or transformed diffuse large b cell lymphoma (dlbcl) or one of its variants according to who classification (centroblastic, immunoblastic, t-cell/histiocyte rich and anaplastic variants) * eastern cooperative oncology group (ecog) performance status must be 0 or 1 * patients must have measurable disease as defined in section 6 assessed within 4 weeks of registration * patients must have failed one or more prior non-hodgkin lymphoma (nhl) chemotherapy or antibody therapy with curative intent; autologous stem cell transplant is permitted * leukocytes \>= 2,000/mm\^3 * absolute neutrophil count \>= 1,000/mm\^3 * platelets \>= 75,000/ mm\^3 * total bilirubin =\< 2.0 x normal institutional limits * aspartate aminotransferase (ast) =\< 2.5 x institutional upper limit of normal * alanine aminotransferase (alt) =\< 2.5 x institutional upper limit of normal * creatinine within normal institutional limits; creatinine clearance calculated or measured at \>= 60 ml/min/1.73m\^2 if creatinine level is above institutional limits * the prothrombin time (pt)/international normalized ratio (inr) within institutional limits of normal * patients with underlying hypertension as defined by blood pressures averaging greater than 140/90 on two separate clinic visits are eligible if hypertension has been controlled by standard nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic therapy * patients must be physically able to orally ingest tablets exclusion criteria: * central nervous system (cns) involvement * previously treated with sorafenib (bay 43-9006) or other small molecule targeted inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinase (mapk) signaling intermediates or angiogenesis (e.g. bevacizumab) * progressed within 60 days of last therapy * prior allogeneic stem cell transplant * candidates for potentially curative therapy, such as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (hsct) * currently receiving any other investigational agents * history of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to sorafenib * uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to: ongoing or active infection, symptomatic congestive heart failure, unstable angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmia or psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements * active hiv infection, because of possible pharmacokinetic interactions of anti-retroviral therapy with bay43-9006 * evidence of bleeding diathesis * currently taking the cytochrome p450 enzyme-inducing anti-epileptic drugs (phenytoin, carbamazepine and phenobarbital), rifampin or st. john's wort * pregnant or breast-feeding; all females of childbearing potential must have a blood test or urine study within 2 weeks prior to registration to rule out pregnancy. women of childbearing potential and sexually active males must be strongly advised to use an accepted and effective method of contraception